it is a good, therapeutic way to look in a nonhostile environment as to where we need to go with the country. >> john: the fact it is a nonhostile environment means it won't be covered on most cable news outlets. i'm looking over the roster of speakers. of course you're there as well as james carvel and mary madeline. i guess their merge is a model for this kind of event. you have trent lott and ted strickland, jonathan capehart and another married couple, avalon and hoover. it seems like a really, really inspiring roster of people. so i guess let me ask you why did things turn out the way they did last week on election day? >> you know, first of all, it was close but i think that -- you know, most of the pundits got it right. that is i think the people sense that the economy was getting better while slowly things were kind of turning in the right direction. and i think they were willing to give the president the benefit of the doubt under those circumstances. i also think that the discussion about the changing demographics in america that is we're a country that's much different tha